40 years of Frenzel: Chief started when firefighting was a whole different ball game

MARGARET TOAL

Published 12:00 am, Saturday, April 18, 2009

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Orange Fire Chief David Frenzel marked his 40th year with the fire department this past week. Mayor Brown Claybar said the city gets "two for one" with Frenzel and his wife, Hildy, who goes to fires to serve cold drinks and hot coffee to firefighters. The two, who have been married 31 years, met while she was working at the fire station. Margaret Toal/The Enterprise less

Orange Fire Chief David Frenzel marked his 40th year with the fire department this past week. Mayor Brown Claybar said the city gets "two for one" with Frenzel and his wife, Hildy, who goes to fires to serve ... more

40 years of Frenzel: Chief started when firefighting was a whole different ball game

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David Frenzel went to the old Beall's department store downtown with a city voucher and got three pairs of khaki work pants and three work shirts. He had someone sew patches on the shirt.

He had passed a physical exam and an X-ray showed his back was OK, so he was ready to become a fireman. When an alarm came, he jumped on the back of a fire truck, held on and went to his first call - a car fire at Fourth and Cypress streets.

The chief had pointed at a veteran and told Frenzel, "You stay on the back of the truck and he'll show you what to do."

A couple of weeks later, Frenzel took the civil service test to secure his new job.

Now, he laughs at how he started. Nothing like that would happen these days.

Frenzel this week marked his 40th anniversary with the Orange Fire Department. Through the years he worked his way up the ranks; he's been chief now for 12 years.

The fire department is his life, and perhaps he was destined to be there. His father, Eddie Frenzel, was president of the volunteer branch of the department in 1947, the year Frenzel was born. Also, Frenzel grew up next door to a firefighter.

He met his wife, Hildy, while she was working one summer at the fire station. They celebrated 31 years of marriage Thursday.

And when Hildy said "yes" to David, she also said "yes" to the fire department. She goes to fires and serves cold drinks or hot coffee to the firefighters, or makes doughnut runs.

And for David Frenzel, the career has come a long way from merely hanging on to the backof a truck.

Education and training mark major differences in the world of firefighting since 1969, Frenzel said. Now, a firefighter must have state certification before going into a burning building. Colleges and universities offer associate degrees in firefighting. Frenzel is a graduate of the National Fire Academy, which he said is the equivalent of a master's degree from a university.

Equipment and safety concerns have changed, too. Hanging off a fire truck isn't part of the picture.

"Everybody has to be behind a door," he said. Fire trucks have double cabs and enough room for everyone to sit inside. Firefighters now wear earphones like the ones jet pilots wear so they can communicate with each other.

Also, their bunker coats are made of fireproof materials, a change from the rubber-coated canvas coats he first wore.

That is topped by a self-contained breathing apparatus tank every time they go into what's deemed a "hazardous condition," Frenzel said.

He said the fire department had only two such tanks when he started. He called the old-timers "leather-lungs" and said it was "manly" to breathe the smoke.

"They would have laughed you off the truck if you had put one on," he said about the tanks.

The Frenzels also have a victim's perspective on fire. Hildy Frenzel worked for lawyer and former mayor Jim Dunaway - "My home for 16 years," she said of his office across the street from the Orange County Courthouse.

"Home" caught fire during Hurricane Humberto. David Frenzel said it likely started during a power surge as the electricity went on and off.

Like others in the area, the firefighters went to bed that night thinking Humberto was a tropical storm, "a rain event," David Frenzel said. When he arrived at the scene, the winds were blowing the flames perpendicular across Seventh Street. He called Hildy and told her not to come.

She lost her Texas A&M collection, including a poster signed by all the legendary Junction Boys.

"There was a lot of sadness," she said.

But there are things on the horizon as well, keeping thoughts of retirement far from David Frenzel's mind.

On Thursday, he went over the contract with an architect for the city's new Central Fire Station. He wants to see that finished.

The city had been reviewing the 60-year old downtown station to see whether to renovate it for modern use when Hurricane Ike helped make the decision. Central Station was flooded, and the firefighters scattered.

The department's administration is in a building at the Port of Orange, which has been rebuilt since it was flooded. Fire trucks are kept in a warehouse and firefighters stay in an adjacent trailer. A sign says "Fire Station No. 1." Frenzel won't call it "Central Station."

The line of Frenzels in firefighting likely will end when he does retire. Their sons, Dave, 27, and Adam, 24, now have careers of their own after being valedictorians of their West Orange-Stark graduating classes.

"They got that from her," Frenzel said, referring to his wife in connection with the kids' educational achievements. "I couldn't even spell 'valedictorian' when I graduated from high school."

What he found he could do is jump on the back of a fire truck, and now he runs the place. ???????????????